11.07.08 MTV Italy Backstage Interview X (with Translation)

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1. Who are Tokio Hotel?
B: Four boys from Magdeburg...
T: One good-looking, and three ugly guys from M.
B: Exactly.

2. Who are your idols?
B: There never was a band that was our idol, or that we wanted to copy, but rather, everybody had his own personality, and his own songs he listended to, and we never had this one band we all loved. So, from the beginning, it was our own style, it just came from ourselves. We never tried to be like some other band, but always tried to put our own personalities into the music, and that's how it is to this day.

3. What is the secret of your success?
To be honest, there is no secret. We ourselves don't have a clue why we became so successful all over sudden. We basically did the same thing 8 years ago... just that it got a bit better over time. But we don't have a real masterplan for success. We just try to be ourselves and do our stuff and our music and try to go our way, and we still love it, it's like a big dream. And now and then we have to pinch ourselves, to see if it's really all true.

4. When did you get to think "Ok, let's conquer Europe!"?
T: If it had been up to us, we would have been successful in Europe already five years ago :-). When it's the right moment, from a musical point of view, is hard to say of oneself. But one definitely realized with the first German album that there was interest, also in other countries. And then we decided to try it with the English album in foreign countries, and that definitely was the right point in time.

5. German audience VS italian audience
B: That's always very hard... We don't differentiate according to countries, we don't say: In this country, they're like this, and in that country... Rather, we think of our fans as one entity, as one ensemble that goes the whole way with us, and you also feel this: We and our fans, we are a big ensemble, like a big team, and we're incredible proud because we have such awesome fans.
T: Especially right now, because it feels like 50°C here, and the fans have been standing out there forever, and they're standing right in the sun right now, and that get's you thinking how it'll be at the concert... but at any rate, respect for making it so far!

6. What does it mean to be an idol?
B: I always have a hard time believing this. Especially when I look around at these guys here, I can't believe that any one of us is an idol.
T: We dont't see ourselves as idols...
B: To us, we're extremely normal. We've known each other for 8 years, we are great friends, and we started to make music together, because it was fun. We are extremely normal, and we've experienced all this together, and we can't really imagin that anybody would see us as idols or would want to be like us. We think of ourselves as totally normal and nothing special... But of course, it's good to hear this, it's definitely a compliment.

7. What do you think about your generation?
B: What we don't like... I think you can't generalize like that. To me, it's not that one generation is like this, and one like that; everybody is an individal and is different and has his own personality, so I can't say it so generally...
T: Basically, we can only look at ourselves, at what's important to us... And a very big thing for us has always been to have a certain amount of freedom, even when you're still young; and especially: To be taken seriously. That's an important point. Many grown-ups don't respect young, don't really take them seriously...
B: And that's what I would wish for, talking about generationsas a whole: That everybody has the possibility to live his dream, and to make it true, and that everybody has the freedom and the possibility to follow it pursue all this - and that this is taken seriously, because everybody, regardless of age, is a human being, somehow, and this all belongs together... you should respect this, no matter how old he is or where he comes from. That always was important for all of us.

8. Which award flattered you the most?
T/B: Hard question.
T: We've had many great experiences. I think, overall, winning awards is without question totally awesome for a band. Especially when it's voted on by fans. And there we had lots of great moments. From the first to the latest award we've won, it all was awesome, and...
B: Also, to us it never made a real difference... I mean, there are awards that are a bit smaller, that are not so much recognized by the public, and then there are those that entice huge media attention - to us, each one was an honor. To us, every award is an appreciation of what we're doing. Of course, there are special moments, but we can definitely say that all the awards we've won have a place of honor with us.
Ge/T: Definitely.

9. Musical maturation.
T: For the English album, the music hasn't really evolved, since it basically are the old songs, just in a one-to-one translation to English. But apart from that, we have as a band - I think you can hear it from the first to the second album - everybody for himself has made progress
B: I think it's basically a naturally development. You could call it that. We haven't tried to do this by force, we just let it happen.

10. Relationship with fans.
B: Of course, we ourselves cannot respond to everything and stuff, that's extremely hard. But we try to keep track as much as possible. We look around in the internet and in all these forums and look at what the people are writing. And of course it comes to our attention when fanpages develop in other countries and people want us to come there. These are the kind of things we are aware of.
T: The most direct interaction is usually in front of hotels, at airports and so on, where we meet the fans in person...
B: ...and especially at concerts, of course
T: especially at concerts. That's basically the personal interaction, that's definitely very important to us.

11. Fan madness
T: That's always one of the hardest questions, because basically every day something totally crazy arrives [at our studio] - be it special fan gifts or fan actions... em, the most recent thing is that a fan climed into our backstage area. We were in the second floor, and we still don't know how the girl made it there. We were totally baffled. Apart from that... we always get so many great things that it's really difficult to pick out the most craziest or the most beautiful thing.

12. Touring and travelling
B: Actually, that's normal for as. To be honest, we don't have a "home" any more, we don't have...
T: homeless :-)
B: ...yeah, basically... we always have all our suitcases with us, all our possessions, and we're every day at home in another hotel or another town, and it has been like that for the past three years. It was one run and it didn't really stop, and you really come to rest very seldom. So, travelling has become normal. It's part of the job, and of course sometimes it's annoying, but...
T: Especially when it's 50°C, and you can't turn on the air-condition in the tour-bus!
B: Yeah. But of course it's also great to go to so many different countries and to have the possibility to travel so much as a band. So, we definitely also enjoy it.

13. Tokio Hotel look
B: We never tried to invent an image, we never tried to create an image - record companies and all these people often try do this like crazy, to build up a certain image around some band. With us, the record company really didn't have much work, because we basically came ready-made. We had our songs, we had our material, we didn't need any media coaching or an image counsellor, we just were ourselves...
T: I'll say it like this: We definitely could use an image counsellor and media coaching - but we still just did it without that .
B: We just went out there as we were, we came like that from Magdeburg...
T: *cracks up* oh dear...
B: ...and walked in front of the cameras. And in the end, that's the best way to do it, because I would never be able to pose every day in front of twenty-thousand cameras and play or pretend to be something that's not me or not the band. And that's also the reason why we look so differently.

14. Private life
B: We try very much to guard our private life. There are very few things from our private life that become public, and that has been extremely important to us, that we keep our friends and families out of it. I mean, there are several different examples, where some mothers write books and stuff - and that's what we definitely never wanted. We wanted that our families are our home, and the point where we can let go, and where it all hasn't anything to do with Tokio Hotel, and that's very important, I think...
T: And that's one reason why we for example hate paparazzi so much! Because I think that every person on this earth deserves to have a private life, like, to still have one piece of a world untainted - and that's definitely extremely important to us.

15. Goals
B: Of course you still have goals. I think the day will never come where we sit somewhere and say, we don't have any goals any more. Everything pushes you forward. Success especially is like a drug, and right now we get quite a high dose of that, and we don't really get enough... so, that pushes you onward. It entices you to go on and to become yet more successful, and to go to yet more countries...
T: Goals definitely are extremely important for everybody, no matter in what job! For every person, to have goals is the most important to get forward.

16. The future
B: The new album is developing right now. When we have time, we're writing, together with Tom I am writing songs and working like crazy, we all are in the studio a lot, and just play a little bit, just for ourselves; we shut ourselves away a bit. There definitely will be a new album, we are working on it, but we cannot say when it will be finished. We never did this, also not with the first and second one, because we really wanted to take us the time. When we say it's finished, then it's finished. There definitely will be a few new things, a few surprises, we're trying a few things out...
T: It will be totally awesome :-).
B: That much we can already say now :-).

17. A wish for the future
T: A bring-me-luck slogan?!
B: Hm, I don't have one at all...
T: To be honest, I've always thought that slogans are a bit silly...
B: I have to say, all people always have this motto for their life, and for me it's always really hard, because you always want to be totally intelligent and say one that sounds as good as possible - but in the end, it's each day another one. So, when I wake up in the morning, I just see what happens, and try to make the best of the day, and the year, and... that's basically it.
T: Georg has a motto: "Live your dream".
Ge: Yes. [No need to laugh, Bill :-)]
T: That's Georg's motto, but, as said: Apart from that, we all don't have a motto.